A very popular service we provide is tap refurbishment or reconditioning and re-plating. The finishes available for replating are CHROME, NICKEL and GOLD.

Our workshop has been refurbishing taps for over 20 years. Our clients base ranges from owners of traditional home owners, interior designers, fine country homes, Banking establishments and Royal Palaces.

We have facilities to restore and and re-plate Modern, Art Deco, Classic and Vintage taps. We mostly refurbish original Antique Victorian or Edwardian Taps. However we can restore and replate all types of mixer taps, bath taps, basin taps, chain stays, and other bathroom fittings. Below are some traditional lever taps refurbished and plated.

Sometimes the taps are that old and worn parts are impossible to find. In our facilities we will replace parts by making them if need be. We are confident that we can restore ALMOST any tap. And if we can’t probably no one can.

PRE ART DECO MIXER TAP CICA 1916

If your waste or overflow is covered in lime-scale or tarnished we can refurbish and re-plate them if necessary. This is particularly helpful in antique baths where the wastes or overflows are often unusual sizes and are no longer available & cannot be replaced with new. On a re enamelled bath this can be the finishing touch to the bath that makes it pristine.

If your antique Victorian or Edwardian taps affected by lime-scale, hard to turn on or off or even not working at all then you can send them to us for restoration in our work shop. We aim to refurfish your taps so well they can be used for another 100 years!If you so wish we can then have them plated in Chrome, Nickel or Gold. Alternatively if the tap is originally a brass finish you can have the taps fully reconditoned and then polished. This is more popular with antique Victorian or Edwardian taps. They can look quite spectacular.

Above are John Bolding basin taps and John Bolding Bath/Shower mixer taps. These are rare taps and it’s fantastic to have restored a matching set.

For the re-plating process the taps are taken apart completely and chemically stripped. The taps are then polished to a flawless finish before being re plated to the clients specification.

Chrome plating is very popular but Nickel plating proves the most popular for Victorian bathrooms. Chrome does give a mirror like finish whereas Nickel has a slight champagne hue to it. Traditionally taps would have been either brass or Nickel in Victorian or Edwardian times. Chrome began to be used in the mid to late 1920’s with the advent of the ART DECO era. Below are some typical GLOBE TAPS that have been fully restored and plated. They could also have been finished in polished brass and would look equally fantastic.

Once the taps have been restored and re plated we put them back together again and then test them for a second time to make sure they are working perfectly. We are very thorough in our testing regime.

We have restored Jacob Delafon, John Bolding & Sons, Thomas Crapper, Porche, George Jennings and Aston amongst others. Your original antique taps are in good hands.

For taps that are originally finished in brass you may wish to have them polished after refurbishment rather than have them re plated to chrome or nickel. A polished brass finish does require a lot more maintenance and polishing to keep them in the pristine condition you recieve them in. Due to this some of our clients prefer the Nickel over the Brass finish but both finishes look great in a traditional bathroom. Below is a traditional restored Bath/Shower Mixer tap in a polished brass finish.

Whether you own a fantastic antique bath or wash hand basin with tarnished and worn taps or waste or a spectacular Art Deco bath with matching taps you can now use our refurbishing service to bring your fine sanitary ware back to it’s full and former glory. You can even create a completly unique look can be created with a modern bath fitted with luxury antique taps fully restored.

We can also restore the feet on cast iron baths. Original Ball and Claw feet can come to look very old and rusty over time. Once we clean them up and Silver Nickel or Chrome plate them. They look absolutely stunning!

All the taps shown here are original taps we have refurbished and plated. They are all for sale now. Do fill out the quick quote form if any are of interrest to you.

You will require a plumber to remove your bath taps, basin taps or overflow and have them sent to our workshop if you require restoration services. Contact us via the quick quote form and we will provide you with a quote. If you can also email us a picture of your waste, overflow, taps or claw feet that would be most helpful. Our email address is thebathbusinessuk@hotmail.co.uk Alternatively call 01342324577 and ask to speak to Teresa Kane.

Cracked sinks have presented quite a problem as far as repairs are concerned. Repairing a cracked sink was very hit and miss. If the crack was stable then possibly repairing the crack and resurfacing the whole sink would be a solution. There was no telling if the crack would grow or not however.So this work could not be warranted. If the cracking was really extensive and also on the underside it was impossible to say the repair would last for any length of time.

With antique sinks, cracks are fairly common so this presented a big problem. Also if we did resurface the sink completely the logo or makers stamp would be lost. Many clients felt this was unacceptable and were unhappy at losing the stamp. So this was another problem we would have to resolve in restoring the old wash hand basins.

The Bath Business have restored old sinks for many years now. Over the last 18 months we have been piloting a new technique to sort out the basins with cracks. We can even sort out bits of the sink that have come off or broken off completely. We can now restore these sinks. Whats more we can also retain the manufacturers logo or mark. As we have been doing this service successfully for 18 months we feel we have tested the techniques enough to warranty this restoration work.

Below is a lovely Shanks sink we restored in our workshop. The sink is a great example of a classic large Shanks sink. It had manged to get damaged quite badly in the inside and underside. Normally this sink would not be repairable. Certainly it would not be repaired with any confidence that the repair would last.

We repaired the inside and outside of the sink. We restored this sink before we had developed a method of preserving the makers stamp or logo. As Shanks sinks are so distinctive in style and shape it was not viewed as a problem at all by the client. As you can see it has come up beautifully.

In addition to repairing and re enamelling the sink we also refurbished the basins taps. This involved taking them apart completely to refurbish the workings of the tap. We also had the basin taps silver nickel plated. Finally we found an original plug and stay for the basin and had the chain stay and chain silver nickel plated also so it was in keeping with the age and style of the basin and taps.

Now the basin takes pride of place in the clients bathroom.

If you are looking at getting your antique basin, Art Deco basin or any fine sanitary ware restored then do contact The Bath Business. We can help repair damage or restore taps or both.

Also if you are looking to source an antique Victorian washstand or taps then do contact us. We frequently have these in stock or indeed we can source them for you.

We had an inquiry from a lovely lady in Ludlow. She had a very pretty little wash-hand basin that had a crack in it and some very worn taps, waste etc. Have a look. What do you think?

We do get quite a lot of enquiries from clients wondering if it’s possible to fix cracks in a wash- hand basin. Most companies would say it is not possible or would simply go over the damaged area hoping it would be fine. If you do have a badly cracked or chipped basin it’s best to look for a company such as ourselves. Most antique restorers or porcelain restoration company’s would refer you to a company such as ourselves to fix this. We believe we are the only bath re enamelling company who can fix badly damaged cracked sinks.

This particular basin had been resurfaced before but the cracks underneath had never been fixed. The surface was coming off again. We had to strip the basin completely before we could fix the bad cracks and also fix the damage around a tap hole. We did remedy the cracks however and repair the damage around the tap hole before we resurfaced the basin. If your bath is as badly damaged as this then we would want to do the restoration work in our workshop.

The basin did also have some lovely taps and an old-fashioned rubber plug and chain stay and a brass waste. They were not in very good condition however and the owner was thinking she might have to replace all of them. Luckily she didn’t have to do this so we were able to recondition the brass ware and taps.

We were fortunate enough to have some original old stock plugs and chain stay in our workshop. Although old style they were brand new straight from the factory. Never sold or used so perfect for the newly restored basin. The taps and waste had to be reconditioned and the brass polished. Here is the result. What do you think?

As we said fixing cracked sinks isn’t a DIY job. If you have a badly damaged or cracked wash hand basin give us a call about repairing the basin and re enamelling it for you.

Let us know what you think of our pretty basin and tap restoration. More to come in the next blog.

Thomas Crapper and Co were very well-known for the quality of their products and received several Royal Warrants. It is a name that exudes quality to this day.

There are quite a few Victorian company’s that helped establish and promote high standards and quality of British workmanship. Within the fine sanitary wear business John Bolding and certainly Thomas Crapper and Co would be counted amongst these. If you are lucky enough to have some Thomas Crapper taps it is well worth restoring them.

Here are some stunning original Thomas Crapper taps. As you can see they were in a terrible state. One of the handleswas completely missing and they were unusuable.

To recondition and re plate these taps first of all the taps would be taken apart and inspected thoroughly. If any parts were found to be missing or faulty these would be replaced. Then the taps would be put back together again and tested to ensure they worked correctly. After this the taps would need to be taken apart again to be plated. In this instance a lovely silver nickel plate was applied. Again the taps would be put together again and tested before finally being packaged a returned to their owner. Arguably more work goes into reconditioning and re plating the taps than the original construction.

The specialist tap technician has done a fantastic job of restoring the taps so they look absolutey stunning.

If you would like to have some original taps restored contact us at The Bath Business.

We also sell original restore antique taps by Thomas Crapper, John Bolding, Dent & Hellyer, George Jennings to name a few. Contact us if you need to source a particular style or make. If we don’ have them in stock we can probably find them for you.

The Shower/Bath handle is ceramic and both cross handles have the HOT and COLD indices respectively. The Mixer is finished in polished Brass which is very attractive. A silver Nickel or chrome finish can also be achieved if desired.

The Shower Mixer can be fixed to the bath by a qualified plumber or, if you prefer, the Mixer can be mounted on a Stand to make them Deck Mounted. Our workshop technician can also make you a bespoke brass stand for them if you desire.

Contact The Bath Business directly for more information on original antique taps for sale.